


Wingspan

by onotherflights



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Childhood Friends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 23:55:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14031648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onotherflights/pseuds/onotherflights
Summary: After an invasion of the mysterious shadow fae Yuri Plisetsky is the last known living heir to the Winter court, and he's on the run. With only the shapeshifter Potya by his side to protect him, Yuri hides out in the woods on the edge of his court and waits for the day he can reclaim his birthright at age eighteen. He is doing just fine on his own until one day he meets a huntsman in the woods  - one who has the power to destroy everything Yuri is working to win back.





	Wingspan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [badaltin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/badaltin/gifts).



> so, here's a tale. I wrote this in November of last year, but it just kind of sat in my docs because i didn't like it but didn't hate it enough to scrap it. Then I was chatting with @badaltin and mentioned it, he read it and liked it so here we are. Elliott, this one's for you since you're probably the only one that's going to read it.

Yuri had learned to run before he learned to fly.

When he was born too soon, no one expected him to survive. There was no reception for the new prince, no parties or galas or grand announcements. He was so frail that everyone just assumed the frost would take pity on him, ending him quickly before any real hope could be formed. Victor once told him that in those first days, father was able to hold his full weight in the expanse of one open palm.

Nevertheless, he thrived out of spite. 

Because of his prematurity, his wings sprouted late. When Yuri was six and Victor was flying circles around him, his wings were the size expected of someone half his age. They couldn’t carry his weight, however light. 

So he learned to run instead. He learned to fight too, of course, but that came later. 

He felt powerful, running through the snow and sending up frost behind him. Victor would be flying over him, his strong white wings a flurry in the air. Yuri would speed on as fast his legs could carry him, until he reached the frozen lake. Without thinking of it, he glided on to the ice. 

There, he swept past Victor, who watched in awe. Even at only six Yuri knew he was strong the moment he touched that ice, stronger than his brother, stronger than he’d ever been in his short life. 

Of course, he wasn’t invincible. A quick crack over thin ice and Victor was diving down, the force of his wings sending a sharper crack down the length of the icy lake. He pulled his brother to safety before he could fall through, before the frost could wrap her thin fingers around Yuri and pull him into the land of the water nymphs that lived below the ice. 

The danger did nothing to deter Yuri. After that day, he was always prepared to run. Even when his wings were strong enough to carry him, he would never rely on them. He knew he could soar and slip across the entire winter court without their help, as long as the ice never melted. 

When he was seventeen, running unseen between the trees and controlling the snowstorm behind him all while his wings were tucked tightly against his spine, Yuri knew he had made the right choice. 

It was better to run away as a prince than to die without his wings, or even worse, his pride. 

  
  
  
  


Before the rampage, Yuri was taught five times a week by three different tutors. He spent hours each day studying the history of the Fae realm and its people (with a sneaking concentration on the royal line of the Winter Court, otherwise known as his family tree), learning the characteristics of each court and the abilities of the fae who lived in them, and of course, mathematics. In his spare time, he trained in archery and close combat, and blew off any further steam by skating. 

Since the rampage, it had turned out that only his extracurricular activities turned out to be truly useful. They kept him moving and kept him strung tight like a bow, ready to defend himself at any time. 

Everything else he needed to know, from which berries to eat to which caves were safe to hide in, Potya was able to teach him. 

She also turned out to be his greatest ally since everything had happened. When he had run from the palace clutching the kitten in his arms, he had no idea that he’d stolen one of the greatest powers from the castle. 

When their home was being seized, Yuri didn’t have a lot of time to gather things he would need to survive in the woods. He needed weapons and fur to keep warm, maybe some food to last him over a few days. He didn’t need to risk his wings to save the runt of the kitchen tabby’s litter, who he had been feeding by hand with milk and herbs from the apothecary since her birth a week prior to the shadow fall. 

He didn’t need to save her, but Yuri knew what it was like to be the runt of the litter too. 

As it turned out, accidentally creating a shapeshifting companion out of a newborn kitten turned out to be a very lucrative mistake. If Yuri needed to know whether or not a cave was safe to spend the night, potya would shrink down to the size of a scorpion and crawl inside to investigate. If Yuri needed warmth, or someone to hunt fresh meat, Potya’s puma form was helpful. Most powerful and impressive of all though was the form Potya had taken for most of their time in the woods. 

The ice tiger. 

Standing nearly eight feet tall, Potya could take the form of Winter itself. The ice was clear as glass, but carved intricately to reveal her stripes and the glowing green of her eyes. The ice was completely impenetrable, unmelting. Yuri had created the single most impressive ice creature in over a century, if the records he studied were accurate. 

The ice tiger was his familiar, his protector, and his only friend. 

Puma, tiger, and scorpion. Potya for short. 

  
  
  


The reasons for Yuri running away were few and uncomplicated; for one he didn’t want to die, and for two he would rather die than be captured. 

The Moon Court had been terrorizing the lesser realms for centuries, starting with its most powerful counterpart — the Sun Court. 

Legend told that once, the moon goddess had fallen in love with the young prince of the Sun Court, but the king would not allow his only son to live in the realm of the gods and goddesses when he could rule peacefully in the fae realm as the Sun King.

Thus, the war began. 

The moon goddess sent out shadow fae - evil spirits who worked invisibly in the shadows of the night, their wings shed in favor of smoke to hide them - to kill those who would stand in the way of her being with the prince. Over time they went rogue, as shadow fae are known to do. Now they killed and conquered courts and houses, seemingly without reason or strategy. They had long since betrayed the moon goddess and killed the king and the prince, as well as all of the children they had together. It was said the moon goddess died of a broken heart, the power she once had only giving rise to the rebellion when they stole it. 

The shadow fae had no loyalties, not even among themselves. That is what made them so ruthless.

The story was told to children before bed, a warning to behave or the shadow fae would come for them. It was also a lesson - stay loyal to the fae realm, loyal to your wings, or ruin would find you. 

Yuri didn’t know about all of that, but he did know that the shadow fae had invaded the Winter Court, and that all of his family was probably dead. None of them were out in the woods, Potya would have sensed them. 

His father and mother, the Winter king and queen, dead. All their servants and tutors and cooks, probably dead. His half brother Victor, the crown prince, definitely dead. 

Potya said he was lying about that last one, but if Victor was by chance still alive and captured by the shadow fae, then he was as good as dead regardless.

That only left him. 

  
  


The shadow fae might have had control over the Moon and Sun Court, and now the Winter Court, but Yuri was the king of this cave. 

Being king gave him the divine right to nap late into the morning, Potya lounging next to him in the form of a puma. He was curled up under his fur coat, his head resting on Potya’s stomach. 

“You stink,” she murmured softly, her voice echoing throughout the cave nearby.

Yuri shrugged, watching water drip from the icicles onto the ground through half-shut eyes. 

“Too comfortable to get up,” was his excuse. 

To be fair, being a runaway was hard work. He had to hunt down food and keep moving so that he wasn’t a sitting duck, all while constantly being on his guard for those who were probably prowling the woods each night between the shadows, plotting the death of the last heir (that was him). 

So he hadn’t bathed in a week, more or less. Potya shouldn’t complain, he was busy keeping them alive. 

Yuri didn’t know how long he could continue with it though, he was a spoiled castle brat, not a cave rat.

He smelled the part though, that much Potya was right about.

It wasn’t that he was  _ afraid _ to leave the safety of the cave unless he absolutely had to. It was just that if he didn’t have to risk his life, why would he make the effort? 

As if reading his mind, Potya quipped back, “If you don’t bathe, I will bathe you myself.” 

Such sass. He had raised her well. 

The offer was sweet but the reality he could do without. So, against all better judgement, he left the cave that afternoon and set out towards the nearest riverbed with Potya a strong and frozen form between the trees as they traveled. 

The river gave way to a small pond surrounded by frosted trees, a pool of pale milk-white water that was almost indistinguishable from the snow around it, save for the fact that there was steam rising from it. 

If humans were around in this part of the realm, and they rarely were unless they were hunting fae, they would be boiled alive by the heat of the water. 

Yuri stripped his furs and slid in with both feet. 

Groaning in pleasure at the water, which just felt like a warm soak to him, Yuri let his wings expand and dip underneath, coating them with white. He slipped deeper into the water, until he was chest deep. 

He washed quietly, only indulging in the comfort slightly. Nice as it was, he needed to return to safety. As he bathed Potya faced outward, her icy emerald eyes watching the trees. 

She heard it first, then Yuri. Before she could warn him he was already standing, having grabbed his bow and positioning an arrow to fly straight through the eye of the source of noise. It had been so quiet in the woods, but then a branch cracked.

A man stood just inside the line of trees, his head barely peeking out of the thick black sheep’s wool that lined his coat. He was hard to see, the darkness of his clothes matching with the shadows of the forest, even in the daytime. He was expressionless, still. He seemed unbothered that there was a steel arrow tip poised to go through his skull, preferring to look past it. The water, white like paint, was starting to drip away and reveal more of Yuri. It was too late to glamour his wings out of sight or try to hide them. He narrowed his eyes at the stranger, his pull on the arrow never wavering. 

A fae hunter was his first thought. There were enough reasons for a human to kill a fae. Sell their wings as trophies, or grind them into a fine powder to sprinkle through mortal hair and on their round cheeks. It was said that the blood of fae was a cure-all for the weaknesses of humanity. While rewarding, fae hunting was a deadly profession. 

If Yuri’s arrows didn’t kill, one move would set off Potya, and after that there would be no more. 

Since the likelihood of actually managing to kill a fae was low, hunters fell on hard times. They had begun to die out, and the ones who were left probably didn’t have the pay for such an exquisite coat like the man wore. A glint from the sunlight, and Yuri could see that there was intricate gold weaved throughout. 

The man stood too still and too calmly in the front of an arrow pointed at him to be human, at least not the kind of humans Yuri had always read about. He was so beautiful, too, from what Yuri could see. Chilled features, striking eyes, a pretty face. He had to be fae. 

But where were his wings? 

“Who are you?” Yuri asked, his voice loud in the clearing. 

“I want to answer you honestly,” the man spoke, his voice calm and steady as frozen water, and the mere sound of it sent a soft chill through him. Yuri realized he was still standing naked, so he backed into the water until his hips were submerged, his bow still poised. “But I fear that if I do, the chances of that arrow going through my skull will be greatly increased.” 

Potya, untrusting of the strange man, inched closer to the intruder with a low growl. 

“You can give me a name, or I can give you an arrow,” Yuri stated flatly. “There are no other options.”

The young man sighed in a way that sounded far wearier than the years on his face. 

“Otabek,” He answered. 

Yuri’s gaze remained narrow and his arrow poised, but his shoulders relaxed slightly. This young man, Otabek, was an honest person. If he had lied about his name, Potya would have been able to sense it, but she remained still. 

“No family name?” 

“My family is dead,” Otabek informed, emotions on the matter untraceable, “so I hardly think it matters.”

Slowly, Yuri lowered his weapon back into the snow beside the water. He let his trembling fingertips sink back into the comforting warmth, let them flow and sink. Perhaps unwittingly, he turned his back, and his wings, to the human. 

“Now that I have given you my name, you know I will not harm you?” 

Yuri almost smirked, “I do not know many things, but I know my cat will stain the snow with your blood if you try anything.” 

He thought that would aptly settle things. Whoever this human was, this fellow orphan,he wanted him to leave. He didn’t like the way this man made his fingertips shake. 

A long silence passed, but there was no retreat of footsteps into the woods. This human was daring to stay. 

“If you and your cat allow it, may I drink some of the water? It has been a long journey.” 

Yuri’s fingers stilled. 

This human had avoided death only to ask for it in a new form. Surely he must know. The wood water was fatal to humans, he would die in excruciating heat, his weak flesh melting into the snow and returning nutrients to the Mother. 

This time, Yuri did smirk, his back still turned. 

“Give him passage, Potya.” 

When the giant ice tiger hesitantly cleared a path, the man made no effort to conceal his haste to rush forward. He must have been desperate to kneel before a fae who had just had a weapon drawn at his face and drink from the water he bathed in. It wouldn’t matter, he would be dead soon. 

Yuri watched with muted interest through his translucent left wing as the human cupped his hands and gathered the liquid in his palms. 

His flesh did not melt, a cry of pain did not startle the woods. The human drank. 

He drank more and more, cupping and clawing wildly at the water like it was his lifeblood. Yuri turned to watch the spectacle, amazed that this human seemed immune to the wood water. 

Finally, he stopped. He looked up at Yuri with the last of it dripping from his face, those brown eyes of his turning colors up close in the stark winter light of the clearing, bringing them to an amber hue. 

His lips parted and formed a question, “What are you looking at, —“

Before Yuri could end his sentence with a proper insult amber eyes rolled back, revealing only the snowy whites of Otabek’s eyes. 

Then, promptly and with a soft thud in the snow, the human passed out. 

Yuri rose from the water, letting it drip away from him as he re-dressed. 

“Is it dead?” He questioned, re-fastening the buckles on his thick fur vest to keep it tight around him. 

Potya, who had shifted into her puma form, had approached and turned the human onto his back, her paw nudging him. 

“No,” she attested, “but any being with a pulse would faint from so much of that fae water so quickly.” 

Yuri picked up his bow and slung his arrow bag across his back, and looked at Potya quizzically. He wondered if they should just leave the human, or whatever he was, there. They had no way of knowing his intentions, no way of knowing if he was a spy from the night court sent out to kill the last claim to the throne. 

If that were so, it seemed odd that the man’s cheeks were sunken in slightly and the area around his eyes swollen. His skin seemed too sallow and pale for its natural warmth, as if it had lost its inner glow. If he were from the night court, would he not just as easily hide in the shadows and kill Yuri the cowardly way, unseen? 

Before Yuri could ask the question of abandoning the human, Potya had shifted down to her scorpion form and crawled underneath, only a moment later transforming back into solid and clear ice. 

“Come, my prince,” she stated calmly, nearly condescending, and walked ahead of him through the trees. “We will make use of him somehow.” 

Yuri narrowed his eyes at her, but tucked his wings in and followed on foot nevertheless. 

  
  


In the cave, Otabek slept by the light of the fire. Yuri ate his supper and definitely  _ did not _ look for any signs of life in the human. It didn’t matter to him, really. Potya had been his only companion for weeks, and he’d been getting along just fine. 

When the moon finally rose and sent a gust of wind through the cave, he stirred. Yuri peered over in only slight curiosity. 

He swore he could hear him whisper something under his breath, under the current of the night’s wind.

_ Mother _ . 

As if the wind broke his fever, the human began to sweat and tear uselessly at the heavy coat and furs he was wrapped in. Potya instructed Yuri to remove the clothing, earning a pointed look from the fae prince, but he obliged eventually. He didn’t particularly enjoy witnessing suffering not caused by his own mischief. 

Yuri couldn’t deny what he saw when he removed the coat from Otabek, it was a symbol that had been ingrained in him since his tutors had began seeing him in his childhood. 

Intricately interwoven onto the back of the fabric, but ever unmistakable, was the symbol of a sun. 

Yuri remembered the tragic fable, the stupid prince who had fallen in love with the moon goddess. All of their children, slain by the shadow fae. The sun Court was dead.

_ Mother _ .

Otabek was stirring even more, now unbound from cloth, and Yuri peered over him curiously. How did this human manage to steal clothing with a royal emblem, did he take it from the back of a dead sun child? If this was so, he'd brought evil into his kingdom, even if it was only the size of a cave.

Just as Yuri was about to shake him awake and demand answers, he brushed a hand over the man’s forehead to wipe away the beads of sweat, and brown eyes shot open in shock, staring up at his own, and called out a name that echoed through the cave.

_ Yuri _ . 

 

**Author's Note:**

> onotherflights.tumblr.com


End file.
